Lately I've been keeping my eye on alternatives to Python. I've gotten tired of waiting for features in Python that, to put it in GvR's words "ain't gonna happen". Most of these features aren't strictly essential to day-to-day programming, and the lack of them doesn't make Python a bad language, but they are features that give that warm feeling known as "elegance".

What are these features? A very short list (for me) includes:

1. Expression-based syntax
2. Closures
3. Macros (Lisp-style, not C-style)

To be honest, I'd settle for #1, but if I'm looking for an alternative, I may as well look for all three.

You might be wondering why Ruby isn't an option, since it supports at least the first two items and it currently has a thriving community (which is always good to have around a language you plan to use for more than hobbies). Ruby has two major drawbacks to me: first of all the performance is absolutely dismal. Until Ruby has a bytecode compiler or leverages an existing VM such as .NET/Mono, this is unlikely to change (I know work is being done here, but I'm not holding my breath. By the time a Ruby 1.x VM is done, Ruby 2.x may well be released, which would seem be a setback for one or the other). The second reason is I simply don't like the look of Ruby code. Too much syntax. This is more critical than even the performance issues. The performance issues will certainly be fixed at some point, but the language isn't likely to change much cosmetically (lest it become a different language). While Ruby may have the heart of Smalltalk, it has the face of Perl. I may like the ugly girl with the heart of gold, but I'm not going to marry her, thanks.

Anyway, I'm not bashing Ruby here, for all of you who are going to get upset about it. I think Ruby embodies some great ideas that have been languishing in the programming world. The deaths of Smalltalk and Lisp pretty much set the programming world back 20 years, IMO, and the fact that Ruby has brought back to life many of the fundamental concepts embodied in those languages is deeply appreciated. Ruby just isn't for me.

Anyway, I'm old and lazy these days, so whenever I see a new language with a syntax I'm readily familiar with, I perk up. Two languages currently sit on my radar as candidates, Boo and Logix (see bottom of article for references).

Of the two, Logix is the most appealing. Logix isn't so much a language as a metalanguage, with a Python-like syntax definition. It also runs on the Python VM and is, in fact, implemented as a Python module that you import into the Python interpreter. This means you can use the Python standard library which is a big win. It meets every requirement I've outlined above (and then some). My major concern with it is that it appears to be dead or at least stagnating and never appeared to have a community to start with. It's so great, I've considered opening a Trac and trying to jump-start a community, but I doubt my own ability to take the lead on development (language design isn't my area of expertise).

The second language I've recently discovered is Boo. I saw the announcement for Boo on c.l.py a couple years ago where it was met with some bit of scorn by the Python community, but recently I stumbled across it again and see that it's grown into a real project in the interim. Boo isn't as easy a jump as Logix (it's a completely new language, with a Python-like syntax, but some major incompatibilities). Also, it runs on .NET/Mono, not the Python VM. I don't consider this a bad thing, but that VM isn't quite as stable as the Python VM on Linux, at least in my experience. Of course, Boo hasn't hit 1.0 yet, so I expect that by the time it does, the CLR will be production-ready across platforms.

Update: Boo also scores major points for having an MVC web framework called Webbness. Documentation looks pretty thin, but it's a start. I'm guessing (but don't know) that Logix could work with some existing Python framework such as Pylons or TurboGears. That remains to be tested.